Australia dropped six places to 15th position - the largest drop out of the 27 OECD countries measured - in an annual index that ranks female economic empowerment, Global head of PwC's People Business Jon Williams announced today.

When five cases of Hepatitis 'A' in Australia were “linked” to eating frozen berries from China, it started a chain of events which reinforce that facts are not necessarily needed to generate a crisis.

Technology has had a massive impact on how I communicate, not only with friends, but also brands. I can interact with huge global brands such as Burberry, and get a reply. Fashion week and runway shows used to be exclusive events but now they are broadcast to millions of people around the world. Social media also has that immediate element to it, so we expect an answer quicker than perhaps we did 20 years ago.

Compiled by the SMK research team alongside industry experts from: L’Oreal, Suncorp, Bakers Delight, Edelman and Royce, this complementary 25 page report looks at the key areas you NEED to be across to win on social media in 2015.

In the rush and hurly burly of life within an organisation, it is easy to settle for a standard of writing that is below your full potential.

There are deadlines to meet, bosses to please, and anyway so many other people are writing less than inspiring copy, what is the point of trying to break the corporate mould? This sort of thing happens to many a competent writer who has the ability to be really good – the power of the buzzword weighs down your words.

Robert Phillip, former CEO, EMEA, Edelman group, has recently released his thoughts on the need for PR to improve its use of data and analytics to provide measurable results in the PR industry. He claims in a discussion on #PRredefined G+ page that PR is dead, at least in its current form.

Social media has proved a powerful tool for raising legitimate issues onto the public agenda. But it has also facilitated a flood of confected issues and manufactured outrage.

Identifying the difference between the two is now an emerging challenge for issue managers and other senior executives. When can you reasonably ignore a confected issue and when might a real issue slip under the radar and cause reputational damage?

Writing a social media strategy is a 9-step process and is more than a Facebook page and/or a Twitter account. This session with Laurel Papworth looks at developing direction around why your stakeholder would want to connect with you on social media, which platforms are best for you and creating a Found Media strategy along with Owned Media.

Not only has social media transformed the way a crisis is reported and the way it engages your stakeholders, it has also given rise to a venomous outrage industry harnessing every opportunity to advance their own cause. In this study-based session with international crisis trainer Geoffrey Stackhouse, learn how to manage 'Story Bombers'; best practice in social media; how to keep control of the story and what journalists need from you.

Recent issues surrounding Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s leadership come down to one word and two questions. The word is ‘trust’ and the questions are simple.

After all the unsettling leadership talk can the Australian public trust Mr Abbott and his government to do the right thing by all sections of the community? Can his own backbench team trust him to act in their interests while pursuing a conservative ideology that has alienated many people.

Blogger outreach is now a mainstay in the life of PR professionals and is increasingly valued as an important area of influence for brands. This session will discuss the differences between journalists and bloggers, balancing editorial and advertorial and how to become a valuable resource for bloggers, make your pitch count and build sustainable relationships with the talented bloggers in an ever-growing blogosphere.

Amid uncertainty over Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s future even if he survives a leadership spill on Monday, the fallout from the shock Queensland election result and political chaosin the Northern Territory, politicians are suddenly proclaiming that they need to do more to communicate their message to voters.

This month’s social media snapshot focusses on Asia and the exponential increase in social media usage across the region.

The growth of social media usage across the Asia Pacific region is enormous and the reach of key networks like Weibo and WeChat often extends outside Asia to Australia and New Zealand. In China alone WeChat has 438 million active users and Weibo has 156 million, both of which garner engagement rates that are higher than Australian organisations are used to.

I hope you find the attached information useful and please let me know if you need any more information about either local or international social media markets.

The State of New York has officially banned the controversial practice of “fracking” to exploit deep deposits of shale gas. However, is it a triumph for objective science or for the power of celebrity?

Regardless of whether the budget was fair or whether the country is facing a deficit crisis, the Federal Government is failing to persuade voters that budget savings are necessary. Many who voted for the Coalition are disappointed by the Government’s inability to communicate effectively, which has led to a crisis of confidence in the community.

Leadership is akin to politics and religion – everyone seems to have an opinion. Ask a room of 30 people to define leadership and you’d likely get 30 different answers.

It’s precisely this contest of definitions that leads to myriad methods of putting leadership into practice. As someone in a leadership role, this leads me to ask an obvious question: how do I learn to be a better leader?

2014 was a landmark year for cybersecurity, which saw a real change in reputational risk for corporations and other organisations. It also reinforced once and for all that hackers and data breaches are never “just an IT problem”The year began with US retailer Target admitting that hackers stole personal financial details of up to 70 million people in a pre-Christmas raid, and the World Economic Forum in Davos declaring cybersecurity a major global risk. And the year ended with hackers compromising the details of 83 million accounts at JP Morgan Chase, making it one of the biggest data breaches in history, followed by the utter debacle of the Sony hacking attack and North Korea threatening retaliation over a supposedly funny movie about the assassination of Kim Jong-Un.

Of course cybersecurity is nothing new. Yet a frightening catalogue of similar events in 2014 helped moved the focus from firewalls and criminal penalties and technical solutions to corporate crisis response and reputation management.

Organisations which are the victims of hackers are routinely criticised for poor online security; for failure to take proper measures; and for slow or inadequate communication to affected parties. But the cyberattack on Sony and its decision to withdraw the movie “The Interview” in the face of North Korean threats moved cybersecurity onto front pages around the world and mobilised a new crowd of stakeholders and commentators, including film-stars, free speech advocates, and politicians right up to the White House.

What happens when the Communicator-in-Chief lacks a PR or marketing background?

Some time in the new year someone will ask you to endorse your organisation’s communications plans for 2015. Which is fine. You either manage the communications team or are responsible for its PR campaigns.

Brands engaging with social media is mostly a waste of time for marketers, argued Mark Ritson, associate professor of marketing and branding expert at Melbourne Business School. Social media agency SOCiETY’s managing director Nicola Swankie had something to say about that.

Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott finished 2014 with an award for Public Relations. But following his many media gaffes, it’s probably one he won’t want to claim. The PM topped the list of 2014’s biggest PR Disasters, publicity blunders and media mis-steps awarded by this very blog.

Ever since visual storytelling burst onto the scene, vision-keepers have dabbled with ways of putting an element of “openness” into their craft. The comedy-mystery Clue was originally released with multiple endings, for example, while the legendary French firebrand Jean-Luc Godard once made a film whose projection sequence was determined by the flip of a coin.

Your client’s brand narrative should never be at a standstill. Social media helps businesses to keep the conversation going with their customers, developing solid new relationships and strengthening existing links.

The #PRIA2014 Conference hosted many voices this year, with Matt Levinson of GetUp! being among some of the brightest. The theme of his session put very simply: a debate arguing the effectiveness of online action versus offline action in a public relations campaign.

Let’s cut right to the chase, shall we?Your online image matters. Get it right, and you’re likely to attract more customers, bring in bigger sales and earn a reputation as a brand people rely on for great service and excellent quality.

You’ve built it from scratch and it’s familiar. You know that so much hard work, planning and investment went into building it the first or the last time but, as art and fashion reflects the zeitgeist, so too must a company brand reflect internal and external context.

The recent acquisition of UK-based communications giant Gorkana by rival Cision saw media intelligence make global headlines. The acquisition, rumoured to be worth some AUD$370 million, was too large to for most of the mainstream papers to ignore. However, many struggled to pin down exactly what Gorkana does. The company was variously labelled a ‘jobs website’, a ‘media information provider’, and a ‘data insight specialist’.

A good media relations agency knows that press coverage deepens and extends an organisation’s engagement with its target audience. Paid advertorial gains exposure, which is useful, but newsworthy editorial goes further. It is inferred endorsement by the author and the publication. It is also much more likely to be read and remembered.

Accurately defined, engagement is ‘an arrangement to do something or go somewhere’. Engagement is a commitment between two parties to a shared journey, over time. It has a clear purpose and future actions for both the person and entity initiating the communication and the recipient of that entreaty.

That definition has never been more apt than in the modern, two-way communication between governments, community organisations and business.

The recent report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) confirms what we have known for a long time about female representation in leadership ranks, but also highlights the difference between policies and deliberate strategies. Strategies require leadership commitment, policies are too easy to ignore.

Day two of the #PRIA2014 National Conference, kicked off last week with an address from Darren Isenberg, congratulating PRIA on 65 years of unrivalled support to public relations professionals in Australia.

Digital marketing and Sir David Attenborough may not scream synonymous, however Australian Radio Network’s national digital director Kate Beddoe says there’s much we can learn from the soothing voiced documentary wizard. This article has been republished with permission from IAB.

Pinterest, the visually-led social network, is a self-expression engine, visual search tool and virtual pin-board all rolled into one and the opportunity for marketers and brands is a big one writes We Are Social’s Lorya Noseda.

Public relations professionals are used to playing in the background. We ghost write for our executive team. We listen silently on briefings for which we researched, booked and provided prepped spokespeople. We give a voice to our clients and organisations without being the face. In short, we’re used to providing value without being externally recognised for it. But in today’s tech-fueled communications ecosystem, a lack of recognition shouldn’t be an internal issue: we now have the tools to measure and report on how we’re moving the needle by generating engagement with our PR efforts.

Brisbane: The Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) 2014 National Golden Target Awards were held Monday night at the Brisbane Convention Centre - sixty-four finalists in 13 categories and more than 169 entries in total.

The Impossible Institute's Dan Gregory was the star guest at the opening session of this year's #PRIA2014 National Conference in Brisbane. The day kicked off with a two-part master class with Gregory, followed by an address from Brisbane Marketing's Chief Operating Officer, Shane Rodgers, at the Queensland State Library. The day came to a picturesque close with the official welcome drinks of the main conference at the stunning Southbank Surf Club, followed by the illustrious annual Fellows dinner. The main conference kicks off next with the new Global Chair of Edelman, Michelle Hutton.

My girlfriend buys every single newspaper available on a Sunday, she will sip her skim latte and be vocally ‘thrilled’ for her client every time she sees them plugged. Then she will go to work on Monday and probably email the journalist explaining how ‘thrilled’ the client was. Then she will probably chat to her client over some sashimi and gauge how ‘thrilled’ they were.

I want to go back to basics in this post and focus on an important part of the writing process – editing your own work. It’s tempting in a fast-paced working environment to finish a piece of writing and move quickly on to the next job. Whether you’re submitting content to a client or publishing on your personal blog, it’s well worth spending some extra time to review it first.

Do you really know who your customers are or are you just relying on clicks to figure out who’s accessing your business? Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar from web analytics firm Sparkline says it’s not just about clicks anymore.

A lot of time is spent discussing the importance of storytelling and corporate narrative when it comes to building your brand. There’s a good reason for this; it helps customers connect with you. However, there’s another benefit that people often overlook – crisis management.

Remember the good ol’ days of advertising when you could crack an off-colour joke or show a woman’s buttocks without fear of running foul of the Advertising Standards Bureau? Perhaps the latter example isn’t such a great one, but you have to wonder if we’ve lost the ability to laugh at ourselves in ads.

Strong ethical standards play a critical role in establishing trust and confidence in any profession, which is why the Code of Ethics lies at the heart being a member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia. However, the 2014 GAP survey found that less than half of respondents in the public relations and communication industry were familiar with relevant codes of ethics.

From Oprah to Mark Zuckerberg, Jamie Oliver to David Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow to Mark Wahlberg, then extending to your neighbours, workmates and friends, about a month ago, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was literally everywhere..

In writing this piece I’m walking a fine line. It’s an invisible line, so it often gets forgotten about, but it’s always there. I’m talking about the time it takes to get a point across and our ever-shrinking attention spans. Let’s cut to the chase.

In the interests of full disclosure I am a registered lobbyist with the Commonwealth and state governments of Australia. And I am concerned by the calls from both sides of politics in the state of New South Wales (NSW) to bar lobbyists and lobbying from the democratic process in our state.

Promotional marketing is one of the most valuable skill sets involved in the changing workforce. Public relations agencies, communications managers and experiential marketing firms alike are in prime position to benefit from this trend, with seasonality and fluctuations in demand being key characteristics of promotions and activations.

Last night Melbourne hosted the final round of PRIA State Awards for Excellence in the 2014 Golden Target Awards. Held at Watermark, in Melbourne’s Docklands, Alain Grossbard, PRIA Victoria President, awarded - infront of 100 leading communicators - 22 Victorian based campaigns and teams across 13 categories.

PR is in a good place and the impacts of effective communication are resonating more and more in global organisations as the dominant hierarchy recognise the value of great communication to support great business outcomes!

Beyoncé is doing something right. In the past year, she has completed two multi-national tours, released a surprise album, was named one of the most influential people by TIME and came in at #1 on Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list. And that’s just to name a few. How has she maintained her success with seemingly minimal backlash (on the scale of 1-to-celebrity, anyway)? And what can other brands learn from her?

I didn't start my career knowing I wanted to be in PR, but somehow it found me and has allowed me to be involved in amazing things, meet amazing people, learn a lot and travel to amazing places, while ducking and weaving the limelight, which suits me perfectly.

I saw a great Pin the other day: “Silos are for farms, not marketing.” Sadly this has not been my experience. What normally happens is more like this. A client develops a business plan and briefs marketing. Marketing develops a marketing plan before briefing digital and advertising. Digital and advertising develop campaigns. At this point PR is usually briefed, often to see if they can ‘PR’ the marketing or advertising campaign. Somewhere along the line somebody was responsible for social. Oh, and the internal comms people might be included – or not.

Vanessa has 18 years industry experience in senior organisational change management, communication and project management roles in both the public and private sectors. As a member of the Canberra People Business, Vanessa specialises in change management, communications and workshop facilitation.

Tracking installs used to be the standard measurement of success for mobile app advertisers. But as anyone with an array of barely touched apps on their mobile device can attest, installation doesn't equate to engagement. In other words, a million downloads are meaningless to marketers and app developers if users aren't coming back and creating value, either through in-app purchases, display ad monetization or even brand recognition.

Today, October 17 is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Over the last twenty years, extreme poverty has already been halved. However, there are still 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty. It is a big question to ask yourself about the actions you could take today, tomorrow or in the near future to tackle extreme poverty. It is all good to be aware and informed, but does our actions stop here?

One-on-one communication can be extremely effective in convincing a prospective (or existing) donor to support a cause. However, receiving a phone call, particularly at an inconvenient time, in addition to other methods, such as direct mail, may be perceived as an intrusion and a waste of funds

Issuing a "non-apology" during an issue or crisis can sometimes be even more damaging to reputation and recovery than no apology at all. Everyone has their pet-hate weasel words people use to avoid a genuine apology, and a current favourite seems to be “mistakes were made.”

We all agree that we spend way too much time reading, writing and filing emails. It’s a habit that’s hard to break. Google CEO Eric Schmidt just shared 9 golden rules for emailing on Time and the expert emaiilers at LEWIS PR gave us 13 more to help make life easier.

As of January 2014, 74 percent of all Internet users were on social networking sites. In other words, your brand needs to be active on social media to reach a huge chunk of your potential fan base. However, if you make one little error, you could be hurting your brand's reputation. To make sure that you're getting the most out of social media, make sure to avoid the following 10 mistakes.

Sending pitches and press kits began as early as our entrance into the 21st century, and these practices, along with the latest phenomenon of contacting journalists over social media, have come to be a major part of “public relations.”

I’ve never been good on my own. Maybe it’s because I’m a twin; perhaps my mother was too kind. Whatever the reason, I need people around me to bounce ideas off, chat to, sympathise with. It sounds corny but my number one concern is always people. It’s how I’m wired and that’s the way I view clients, brands and communities..

A “reputation” is the emotional connection stakeholders have with a company. By bringing to light negligence within the company, a data breach/cyber-attack can break the emotional connection between the company and its stakeholders. 29% of existing customers would discontinue relationship with the company after a data breach.

Marriott Hotels unveiled a new travel booth in New York, which lets guests virtually visit beaches in Hawaii or stand on top of London's Tower 42. Could this be the new way to check out holiday destinations before booking? Or the answer to a holiday completely? What are your thoughts on travel booths?

Walking into a crowded networking event where you recognise no one can daunt even the most sociable business professionals. Understanding why you’re networking and how to maximise any potential contacts you make is vital to help a business grow. Here CEO of OfficeBroker.com Chris Meredith gives his top tips on overcoming networking event fears, and getting the most out of them for your business.

If you've planned a wedding recently, chances are you've heard of Polka Dot Bride, Australia's 'most loved wedding blog'. Started by the somewhat mysterious (and anonymous) Dorothy Polka -- aka Ms Polka Dot -- take a look at the gorgeous, information-packed site and one thing's certain: whichever clever entrepreneur is behind the pretty facade, she sure knows a thing or two about weddings and blogging.

The National campaign ‘Don’t Play Renovation Roulette - Asbestos Awareness Week 2012’, won the 2013 Golden Target Awards for 'Best Government Sponsored Campaign', now it has received International recognition in the highly competitive 2014 Global Alliance COMM PRIX Public Relations and Communication Management Awards For Excellence held in Madrid overnight.

As the role of the PR consultant evolves, it’s more important than ever to learn lessons from other disciplines. We need to understand the changing dynamics and influences in HR, marketing, finance, technology, sales and customer engagement, as well as within our own industry, if we are to guide clients effectively.

Everyone’s talking about Arianna Huffington, who was in Sydney last week ahead of the launch in Australia of The Huffington Post, of which Arianna is founder, president and editor-in-chief.

During a Business Chicks breakfast briefing I attended with over 1,000 other early risers, Arianna spoke not of The Huffington Post online news site which has more than 90 million global unique visitors every month, but rather shared her thinking on a mindful approach to life to enhance wellbeing and productivity.

There is no denying that new media businesses are growing at a much faster rate than their old media counterparts, but what does this mean for the founders of these companies? This inforgraphic is an interesting comparison between the founders of the new and old media businesses and their handsome paychecks.

Good news travels fast up the corporate ranks while bad news can be dangerously slow to reach the ears of senior management.

Many successful leaders encourage open communication with employees for this very reason. Once public, that bad news spreads like wildfire. If you don’t get to the blaze first, if you aren’t prepared to contain it from the outset, your corporate reputation can burn.

No business should overlook creativity when developing a marketing or content strategy. Creativity increases profitability and builds customer connections, regardless of your industry, so it makes sense to use it. More than that, creativity can shift customer beliefs and behaviour to the benefit of your business.

Social research agency MumsNow have recently released the findings of their national survey of the social media habits and technology interactions of more than 1,500 Australian Mums. The results provide a unique insight for business into the way Mums are behaving online, what they do, when they do it and why. Hint — it all happens after the kids are in bed!

It’s easy to imagine that it’s mainly big companies, big brands and high-profile celebrities who are vulnerable to reputation damage. But a small New Zealand company has shown that every organization, no matter what size, can be at risk from public issues. It also showed how not to respond when trapped in the glare of publicity.

Today’s fast paced business culture is more fluid and mobile than ever before, and as a result a large number of emails get checked on a mobile device or tablet. In fact, the Radicati Group estimates that by 2016 over 730 million accounts will be accessed from mobile devices. That is a LOT of email being looked at and responded to via mobile phone–so it is probably safe to assume that your customers and prospects are all checking email while on the go. And that means it is imperative that you make sure your email marketing correspondence can easily be viewed on every type of device.

PR is different. I take that back. The world is different. How we make decisions, buy things, talk with friends is evolving…and evolving fast. Thanks to technology, consumers have taken some of the power back from businesses. Only 10 percent of U.S adults who go online trust brand ads, but 46 percent trust online customer reviews. In the new age of business, it’s only natural a new type of PR pro is needed.

The only industry changing more quickly than PR is the media, and we are inextricably intertwined. I entered PR in 1997. The dot.com bubble was fat, as we ignored our collective common sense in the wake of skyrocketing IPOs and lovable sock puppets, which turned out of course, to be unprofitable. Despite the dot.com buzz, we were still perfecting how to use email for media relations and favoured hard copy press kits.

The world of PR can be a dangerous place if you don’t pay attention. Today, I wanted to explore some of the worst disasters inflicted on an individual’s, or company’s, public image. They have taken place as a result of carelessness, coincidence, or just downright stupidity. All in all, examining these PR disasters makes for a fascinating read. And one that you can learn a lot from.

I often interview people who want to break into public relations, be it new graduates or more experienced candidates looking to make a career change.

A communications degree is not essential and PR teams are stronger when its members come from a range of backgrounds. Candidates with limited industry experience bring a fresh perspective and often become valuable team members. The key to making the transition is focusing on your transferable skills and attributes.

So what are the most important transferable skills you should highlight in an interview?

Blogging in itself is a full time job, but most bloggers also have a full or part time job, or are running a busy household as a mum. Or both. In addition to the time pressures bloggers are under, their inboxes are also inundated with spam- namely requests that are trying to get them to write about a brand for free.

These kinds of emails are quickly deleted, which is why it’s so important that you put some effort into making sure your email doesn’t get put into this basket.

It seems the world is finally coming to terms with the fact that humans evolved to stand, not to sit – well, health researchers, savvy office workers and many commuters, at least.

The evidence is mounting to show that spending too much sitting at work, during your commute and for leisure increases your risk of diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease and early death.

This isn’t a new revelation. Bernardino Ramazzini first described the ill effects of too much sitting at work in the 1700s and advised people to break up sitting and stimulate blood flow.

But technological advances and ergonomic experts have made sitting more comfortable and more enticing. Australian adults now sit for an average of nearly nine hours a day. This is longer than the time that most people spend sleeping.

Twenty years ago, Len Slazenger, a professor at Harvard Business School visited Australia and spoke at a Young Presidents' Association seminar on the tools for business success. I was the only female in the room and, during a discussion, said ‘The difference between women and men is intuition. We females have intuition.’ There was a huge roar of laughter from every guy at the seminar. At the time, I was so embarrassed. Today, that word 'intuition' is described as 'emotional intelligence'.

Legendary businessman Henry Ford once said: “They can have any colour they want as long as it’s black.” It would be tough to bring that attitude to business today. You only have to look at a commodity like milk to see the plethora of options available based on what customers want.

Still, the long-held belief that ‘the customer is always right’ isn’t necessarily reflected in reality. The late Steve Jobs was once quoted as saying: “It took us three years to build the NeXT computer. If we’d given customers what they said they wanted, we’d have built a computer they’d have been happy with a year after we spoke to them – not something they’d want now.”

According to Gleanster, 84% of top companies are either automating their social media efforts or are considering doing so in the near future. With numbers like that, it’s hard to imagine why you wouldn’t want to start scheduling out your tweets, Facebook updates, etc. However, the truth is that doing so can prove a bit risky.

With its vast audiences and instantaneous communications model, Twitter is a great vehicle for brand building. Businesses can connect with target audiences without any intermediary filter to obstruct or otherwise taint their message. They say what they want to say to the people they most want to reach. At the same time, a company's Twitter presence opens up the possibility of offending those same audiences or otherwise committing some sort of brand-damaging social media faux pas. When this occurs, there's a lot riding on how well (or how poorly) a business apologises—also via Twitter.

Colour is evocative and intrinsically linked to branding. Here at PRIA we have been linked with the colour blue for over 65 years, and we have done so for its corporate, neutral properties. As sight is one of the most developed of the human senses, the importance of colour in marketing and brand building is undeniable. Humans respond to visual stimuli and colour is one of the more obvious signifiers of a brand. Jarryd Kanzokic, senior art director of Play Communications says that 90% of consumers snap judgments are made based on colour, “everything we do as marketers is aimed at making a connection through emotion which hopefully triggers a reaction in the consumer.”

The media is naturally full of Robin Williams as the world reacts to the sad confirmation that he died by his own hand. That this comic genius, considered one of the funniest persons in the world, could be so tormented, so despairing that he could see no other way but to end his life seems incredulous.

Some PR agencies are desperate for new business; some can afford to be very picky; most are perpetually open to it. Can't imagine knocking back new biz? There are some occasions when you should perhaps say...thanks but no thanks.

A look at our resident NFP contributor, Karen Sutherland, and her latest research at Monash University investigating social media in the NFP sector, exploring this issue from organisational and publics/stakeholder perspectives.

The idea of being interviewed by the media can be intimidating. It’s enough to give some people sleepless nights. Even experienced business executives who have done a lot of public speaking can find the prospect daunting.

Instagram isn’t a new social network by any means but it’s still relatively unloved by brands. Yet if you’re serious about reaching new customers, and better engaging the ones you already have, you absolutely must have an account. Why? Well, the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is true. People connect more with images.

It was on the trip of a lifetime when seasoned PR pro, Jocelyn Hunter, found herself falling in love with a city on the opposite side of the world to home, setting up her very own PR agency. Here, we chat with Jocelyn from Melbourne's Bench PR.

Think of professional communication and you’d be hard pressed not to think of PowerPoint; it’s what we know and love and it’s taught us to tell a story to a business audience in bite sized-chunks and occasionally one too many dot points.

Are you in the job market again? If so, a few things have changed since the days when you used the internet to send your resume and cover letter to a company or hiring manager, and hoped this was enough to land an interview. It can still happen, but statistics show that only about 11% of jobs are obtained using the Internet.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been living and working in Sydney for six months. You know what they say, time flies when you’re having fun. I arrived at Max after five years of working at another tech PR agency in San Francisco. One of the main reasons I moved was to experience a new culture for personal and professional growth.

When I talk to my third year students about the bad reputation of PR, I always get asked about how we change this reputation, to which my response is: “by doing great work”. Next year, however, I will be changing my response.

The media landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. As publishers struggled to come to terms with their business models shifting online, they were hit by a second massive wave of disruption in the shape of social media.

Summarising the changing media landscape in one word, that word is immediacy. Journalists no longer have the luxury of a monthly, weekly or even a daily news cycle. The online digital media monster requires around the clock feeding.

Winning awards is a source of much satisfaction and testament to one’s creativity and ability – although arguably what is more important is the creativity that underpins the award entry and the process by which the campaign idea was developed.

Professional indemnity insurance (PII) is a must for Public Relations consultants & agencies. It protects you & your company should a client file a negligence case against you. And as there are many risk exposures in PR, it’s definitely worthwhile investing in PI insurance.

I first noticed PRIA as a little icon on a uni friend’s Linked In page, but PRIA has since grown into one of my greatest learning experiences through volunteering with the New and Emerging Practitioners’ Group.

Our recent Communication and Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) provides an insight into what the industry looks like in the current Australian climate. This biennial GAP study aims to provide valuable benchmarking and tracking data on PR and communication in Australian organisations. Read on to find out more.

We recently came across Andre Eikmeier’s article in BRW, “Five ways to create an inspiring workplace” that draws on the importance of sustaining a cohesive and positive workplace. How do you keep your employees motivated? Why is it important to have a low staff turnover rate? Andre Eikmeier delves into the five key things organisations should consider to inspire employees.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to join Facebook’s Antonia Christie and industry expert Scott Rhodie on a PRIA panel discussing the new rules of PR and Marketing. The aim of the event was to identify the key threats facing the industry, where the future opportunities are for skills development and how PR will compete with other communications disciplines in the years ahead.

In a world where communicators, have been taught that communication is the basis of the intention of an individual, name or brand in society, it´s amazing how, even in the 21st century, even when it´s our daily bread...we find ourselves with PITCHING gaps. Irony or lack of a process that makes sense? Its not about perfection, but passion.

The anti-corruption watch dog in NSW has been scouring the behaviour of government representatives and business interests. This means that new regulations for public affairs practitioners are being introduced and will impact many PRIA members who deal with members of Parliament and government employees.

Mashable’s article, ‘6 signs your internship is worth your time,’ provides a realistic list that some internships can offer. Like at PRIA, my time there included great perks that would surprise a lot of final year undergraduates.

Two years ago and much to my surprise I was informed by my team at Max Australia and Spectrum Communications that they had signed me up to participate in the Vinnies CEO Sleepout. The team was passionate about helping the community and we were saddened to learn that on any night in Australia, 1 in 200 people are homeless[1].

After getting up at 5 a.m. this morning for the commencement of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, a parody between the FIFA World Cup and a PR campaign suddenly came to mind. Winning the FIFA World Cup is like creating and sustaining an effective PR campaign, with your salient public being both the crowd in the stadium, and the millions watching at home or on the move.

Back in the '80s, a sleeper hit emerged known as "Cheers." Set in a Boston neighbourhood bar, it featured a likeable yet quirky cast of characters who would mix, mingle and debate over a multitude of topics. Conversations at Cheers often tipped in favour of the ridiculous, but sometimes the banter would go deeper.

We've got a very special blog for you today. At last year's national conference in Adelaide, we hosted a very popular concurrent session on 'Building Influences as a Not-for-Profit' - which featured Prof Shirley RandellAO, PhD, Managing Director, SRIA Rwanda Ltd (Shirley Randell International and Associates).

Shirley gave a very inspiring account of how she has helped build women's rights in Rwanda. She's carried her message for decades, and continues to advocate for human rights across the globe. Inside is an account of her recent travels, and how her stories are continuing to make changes across the world.

Tony Jaques' article "Is bad-mouthing your competitors smart issue management?" highlights some interesting and fundamental points about PR practice. Is a negative media strategy a good idea? Or is it reinforcing negative stereotypes of PR and "spin"? By using the rivalry between A2 milk and Parmalat as an example, Tony discusses the implications of bad-mouthing in issue management.

SIlvana Lainfiesta's article "Its all about intimacy..." highlights how PR and making emotional connections with your publics, are interrelated. She reveals how creating a positive and intimate experience with the consumer, can become a long term investment, more so than buying your success within the PR industry. Read on to see how.

Public relations, or PR as it’s regularly abbreviated to, is the management of information and the dissemination of that information between a government, an individual or an organisation and the general public. In this article we look at PR as it pertains to business organisations.

We recently had Derryn Heilbuth at our Adelaide PRIA PoweR day series where we were able to gain greater insight into the wonderful world of infographics. If you were not able to attend her session, her article "How to produce good infographics," gives an introduction into how infographics are a simple yet, powerful tool in getting your message across to your targeted publics in a quick and effective manner. Read on to find out more.

Today we have a guest blogger, Zara Toft who covers some key pointers in regards to the importance and role of PR for businesses. What are the misconceptions of PR? When do you think its appropriate to use PR? Why use PR in the first place?

Icon. PR's latest blog 'Doing your homework can save you dollars' is a relevant and insightful article about the significance of research in the PR industry. Many people can overlook the significance of research in a PR agency, but really, research is key to cost effective and successful PR practice.

Whether one works for a PR agency or in-house (within an organisation), the reality is that each of us has clients, works on projects, needs to generate new business and is strongly influenced (if not driven) by the need to make money/do business for our ‘clients’, making all of us, in fact, ‘PR consultants’.

We recently came across Icon PR’s article “Doing your homework can save you dollars,” which details the importance of research in establishing the strategy behind a campaign: What do you need to consider when creating this strategy? Internal stakeholders? A more integrated approach? Budgets? Read on to find out more.

We recently came across Gloria Buono-Daly’s book review on “The Digital Marketer,” that details how the advent of new communications technology has impacted patterns in consumer behaviour. Marketing concepts, practises and careers have had to adapt and take advantage of these new digital mediums. Read on to find out more.

We recently read Jeff Bulla’s article “Why you should forget Facebook?”, that addresses how despite Facebook being the current mainstream social media platform to use to market your brand, emerging brands with limited funding may need to reconsider. Why? It is clear that the new change Facebook has implemented, is geared towards increasing the monetary value of its platform. As such, this has inadvertently affected the landscape of Facebook, where it's started to filter your Facebook updates. Read on for more information.